Some Radicals were less enthusiastic, believing that “the butter is spread on rather thin.” The eccentric Parker Pillsbury, whose “fretful, narrow spirit” disturbed fellow abolitionists, “said he dreaded to give way to any rejoicing, for he had noticed that any good thing in the Government was quite sure to be followed by some extraordinary baseness!” Illinois Congressman Owen Lovejoy, a self-described “old and ultra abolitionist,” demurred. With an apt image, he defended Lincoln as an “Executive rail-splitter” who “understands his business.” The president knew full well “that the thin end of the wedge must first enter the wood.” By signing the emancipation bill, he had “taken the Abolition wedge, and struck it into the log of Slavery and now the heavy mall of Abolition must let the blows fall till it is driven to the head, and the log riven in twain.” But, Lovejoy cautioned, “in very ugly and cross-grained, or frozen wood, the blows have to be a little easy at first, or the wedge flies out.” Echoing Lincoln’s belief, the congressman added that it was “not worthwhile to strike so hard as to have a rebound, for that would retard the work in the long run.”
Source: Abraham Lincoln ∶ A Life ▫𓂃